Win dinner and a night's stay in a top UK hotel

We've another top-notch competition on lovefood.com, how would you like to winner dinner and a night in a hotel? Course you would, read on.

Our friends at Macdonald hotels have 48 charming hotel locations in the UK, each with its own unique and lavish facilities ranging from high-end spas to challenging golf courses.

However, what we like is their guarantee of a food offering that is unparalleled in the UK hotel industry in terms of seasonality, sustainability, flavour and provenance.

The firm prides itself on working with a small group of suppliers that are mostly UK-based that use ethical or traditional practices; their restaurant chefs work from raw ingredients, do not use short-cuts (they never use pre-cooked or frozen produce) and plan menus by season to ensure food is bursting with nutrients and flavour.

Wow, that’s different

Indeed, some examples of Macdonald’s enlightened food policy include: all chicken used in catering and the group’s restaurants is free-range; the pork is outdoor-reared, free-range and British; the lamb and beef is Scottish and grass-fed; eggs are free-range; milk arrives daily from a family-owned Scottish creamery; the cured and smoked fish used by Macdonald chefs is smoked in traditional 150 year-old red-brick kilns.

Sounds great, but what about the chefs?

Glad you asked that. Macdonald Hotels also employ the very best in fine dining talent. John Paul Maclachlan, Executive Chef at Macdonald’s Marine Hotel in North Berwick, learnt his trade with Gordon Ramsay and Raymond Blanc, and Aidan Byrne, who established the British Grill at the group’s Craxton Wood hotel in Chester, remains the youngest UK chef to have won a Michelin Star at the age of 22. 

Have they won awards?

They sure have. The hotel group has been awarded over 40 AA Rosettes for its restaurants, positioning it second in the UK for the hotel group with the most Rosettes and demonstrating its commitment to top-quality food. Macdonald hotels are justly proud of their Scottish Steak Clubs, which use only the finest Scotch Beef and can be found in four of the group’s hotels (three of these also have Josper Grills – an innovative charcoal-fired grill that is relatively new to the UK).

As food writer and investigative journalist Joanna Blythman says ‘Macdonald Hotels promise to serve you “good honest, simple food from great ingredients” and it really does take this mission to heart.’

Sounds like they know their onions, how do I enter?

Simple: if you were having the Lovefood editorial team round for dinner, what recipe from our database would you cook for us and why?

Dear lovefood, I would cook... [link to lovefood.com recipe] … for you because…

Answer in the Comments Box below please. Closing date is Thursday 10th May. Usual lovefood T&Cs apply and the editor's decision is final.

The prize

The prize is dinner for two (plus one bottle of house wine) and one double room at a Macdonald Hotel resort in the UK. Macdonald hotels are all over the UK so we’ll try to find one near(ish) to you should you win. Transport isn’t included. 

More things you might enjoy

Win the trip of a lifetime to India 

Chicken recipes

The UK’s favourite foods: Scotland